Ron Kurelo

Writing

ron.kurelo.canada@gmail.com

Book number 1 - Coming 2017 (SAMPLE)

“The Lucky Bastard, Shanghaied.”

FORWARD

My goodness what a racing style that catapults you through history and events bridging continents as though time stands still. What you will read of War Lords, Spies, Intrigues, Gangsters, the 1st S.W.A.T Cups in the world, this existed in a city of wealth & terrible poverty, brothels, movie stars, crime, unequaled, even to this day. This will take you to a wild world, the Paris of the East, to Shanghai. Many countries had pieces of this city: Japan, U.S, U.K & the French, everyone wanted it. The heroes were the Shanghai municipal police, it is a darn good read.

HLCol K. Lloyd C.D. Former Royal Hong Kong Police Detective Chief Inspector

INTRODUCTION

“There is the right way, the wrong way & my way.”
- A Sergeant Major of the Shanghai Municipal Police Depot; 1923

“If God lets Shanghai endure, he owes an apology to Sodom & Gomorrah.”
- A Shanghai Missionary

“Remember Sergeant, without money, you are just another Chinese.”
- A Chinese Warlord speaking to his white advisor; 1926

This is a historical fiction most of the events cited happened, several of the character are taken from my experience in the Far East, many of the character you will read about existed. Shanghai, China (1920’s - 30’s), the Paris of the East. Three million souls - crime, corruption, opium, morphine, child slave labor, really bad women, assassinations, kidnappings, running gun battles in the crowded streets. Nationalist Chinese patriots and Chinese Communist troops battle it out. Executioners with massive beheading swords do their worst in the Chinese city streets.

Shanghai is surrounded by warlords who rule China. There is no China - it is individual thiefdoms. Shanghai was divided into 3 sections by Treaty Rights long ago. The international section is run by foreign devil English of the old school, the corrupt French Concession that pushes opium & women, the Chinese city under all. The old rule maintained, the death penalty for everything. There is an unofficial, little Tokyo. The Japanese are coming on strong and feel it is their destiny to own Shanghai. Morphine, a new drug, flows through this port of evil doers, Japanese bandits are out to bleed the Chinese. Movie stars, con men, assassins, spies, international bankers rickshaw coolies; peasants share the island of Shanghai. Nothing touches them. They are Shanghai Landers.

It all happened, of the stories you read, many are from the files of the Shanghai
Municipal Police, a modern worldly Force. Recruits were mainly from the British
Empire, 5’10”, 160 lbs, of good character, single, of the white race. Of the many who came out, some fell to the evils of sex, drug and corruption, They were Shanghaied.

Everything under God’s Sun could be had by a recruit with money. White Russian prostitutes, dancers or reception girls, were a favorite. Mistress could be kept for a month, for the price of a night with one American prostitute. Cossack troops employed by the Shanghai City Council patrolled the mean streets with the police, sabers slashing, acting as body guards to the rich so they would not be kidnapped by Chinese gangsters.

Gun toting thugs, armed to the teeth, rode on the running boards of Buick protecting their war lords. U.S. marines, British soldiers, Japanese military, and Shanghai police officers patrolled the street together. Hard as that may be to believe, it’s all true. Money flowed from the heavens over the bodies collected each morning from the streets. Starvation and sickness - death in many forms - awaited all.

This was Shanghai. Into this opium den of sin, murder; intrigue a former Canadian Mountie, a friend of both the British Royal family and an Earl of the Realm, volunteered for service with the SMP (Shanghai Municipal Police) in payment for his life, saved during the Great War by Chinese Railway Troops under command of one of the most famous Canadians ever, Maurice “Two Gun” Cohen. (Yes, he existed.) Our Mountie; his two Australian mates waded into Shanghai as probationary Foreign Sergeants. They work with the great Generalissimo Chang, the first president of China, Sun Yet Sen, and assist the last Emperor. They also flight communism and inspect brothels.

Ron Greyeyes, part native, of Alberta, saves the life of a Chinese maiden from an evil Japanese Lord, almost loses his life convalesce in Siam and, falls for two girls, then runs afoul of the Japanese secret police - the Kempi. With his pals, he escapes to Russia through Manchuria & Mongolia, then travels to England and U.S.A. to brief the British Security Services; U.S. F.B.I. of the Japanese threat in the far East, again meeting the Earl’s daughter. He trains at the famous secret Camp X spy school and meets Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame, then goes to war. Again, this is an adventure story with an historical figure who lived and died in Shanghai. The entire story came to me from my experience in the far East police; military, while undergoing a serious operation in hospital in Oshawa, Ontario, drugged for pain with morphine. It’s all bloody true.

Levee Day, 01 Jan 2015,
Royal Canadian Legion,
Oshawa, Province of Ontario,
Canada

R.W. Kurelo CD, Lt. (Ret), Canadian Forces Reserve.

Ron is currently writing a 6 book series; set in Shanghai in the mid 1920’s. These books with capture the hearts and minds of historians, military buffs, and enthrall any active mind. The stories are semi-fictitious; littered with true events and experiences Ron has lived through. Below is a brief forward and introduction of Part 1- The Lucky Bastard, A Canadian serving in the Shanghai Municipal police. Enjoy!